World’s Most Expensive Gardens

You might think gardens would escape the gold and diamond trend endemic to “most expensive” objects. You’d be wrong. While supremely expensive and completely organic gardens do exist, so too do gardens bejeweled for millions of dollars (or, in this case, euros).

Leonardslee Garden – $7.62 million

Leonardslee Garden in West Sussex is a lush, 225-acre property filled with beautiful flower gardens, wallabies, lakes, waterfalls and one-of-a-kind trees. The gardens are filled with rhododendrons, camellias, magnolias and azaleas and the forty-strong mob of wallabies, many of them albinos, keeps the gardens from being overgrown with weeds.

The garden has been owned by the Loder family since Sir Edmund Loder bought the estate in 1889 and it has been open to the public for 101 years. That all changed in 2010, however, when Robin Loder, representing the fifth generation of Loders to tend Leonardslee, sold the gardens for a grand sum of Â£5 million—US $7.62 million—to an anonymous buyer who wished to discontinue public access to the gardens.

This isn’t the first part of the original estate to be sold, as the Loders sold the Italianate manor in the 1980s. It’s currently for sale at Â£2.75 million—US $4.2 million—and it’s been speculated that the same billionaire has set his sights on that property as well.

Ace of Diamonds – over $31 million

The Chelsea Flower Show, held annually by Britain’s Royal Horticultural Society, is the world’s premiere horticultural event. Over the course of five days in May, some of the most fantastic floral and vegetable gardens, as well as tree exhibits, are on display on the Royal Hospital Chelsea grounds. The 2010 show was no exception and included the most expensive garden in the world.

Designed by renowned landscape gardener David Domoney, the Ace of Diamonds plot is the ultimate fusion of plant life and precious gems. The garden boasts both plants named after jewelry and jewelry inspired by plants, including such plants as ‘Juniperus Emerald Spreader’ and ‘Pulmonaria Opal’ alongside jewelry such as a daisy shaped ring set with a rare $5 million blue diamond.